


Taking Time (Literally)

by RayneSummer



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, I can't stop writing just these two, I swear I like everyone else too, why did this take me so long idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-14 02:58:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7150145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RayneSummer/pseuds/RayneSummer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one takes a fall like that and comes out fine. But he's Nathan Drake, and he doesn't have time for nursing bruises; luckily Sully's not having that, no matter the pressure to move on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking Time (Literally)

**Author's Note:**

> This scene needed more comfort to go with the hurt. And I'm never one to pass up writing about the boys. So, here, it took me a while, but it's finally finished!  
> a.k.a. Sorry We Broke Your Clock   
> (I changed the title at the last minute)

Nate eyed the huge bell doubtfully before taking a breath and steeling himself - and jumping at the handle-like rod to ring it.

There was a split-second of 'maybe it'll be okay' before total chaos reigned.

It took a couple of swings to get the old thing going, and just as it almost hit the window for the third time, the inside smacked into the inner outside and a colossal 'DONG' echoed through probably the whole goddamn city.

The nearby window immediately shattered from the loudness, but that was the least of Nate's worries; the bell, upon ringing, merrily decided its job done and detached itself from the ceiling, beginning the long descent down with Nate hanging on for dear life.

"Oh, SHIT!" He barely had time to yell in panic as the bell dropped steeply and smashed into a wooden column, forcing its burden to loose his grip and fall, hard, a few metres onto the next large cog.

He tried to land on his feet, sort of, but both he and the cog were moving and the second he hit the thing, feet first, pain jolted from his ankle and he immediately fell backwards, slamming his back on the ridged surface before uncontrollably rolling off it.

Frantically, Nate scrabbled for a hold with one hand on the cog's toothed side he'd landed on, yelling mindlessly, "Sully! Get the hell out of the way!!"

His hold half-slipped, half-wrenched away and he twisted around to face downwards while sliding down the huge cog's smooth surface. Despite his frantic state of _HOLY SHIT?!!?!_ - both a question and exclamation since neither single one could really expressed this situation - his mind automatically ordered the next move; "get ready to jump!"

Speaking to himself often enforced instructions, and especially when he was about to literally be on a death slide, and juuuust before slipping off the cog to an imminent end on the hard ground below, Nate jumped desperately and hung on to the bell-type thing that had previously swung the way to Taurus.

"Got it!" His breathless shout of relief didn't last long.

Now it had different ideas, and the brief quiet safety of hanging by a vice-like finger grip on the thing was aggressively broken by moving back towards the middle structures, where it slammed into another wooden support pillar - or, more accurately, Nate got slammed into the wood, gritting his teeth against what was going to be a very bruised side tomorrow, and grimly hung on for dear life.

Unfortunately the thing also had had enough, and abruptly dropped a couple of metres, causing him to lose his grip on it and fall hard against the next cog down, landing painfully on its ridged side, with the blunt edges mercilessly slamming into his side.

Despite his efforts to keep his head just high enough not to have it slammed, the sheer force of the drop and the pain throbbing from his massively bruised body pushed his head down none too gently on one of the cog's jutting edges.

Nate looked up slowly, aware that he wasn't on safe ground yet but totally exhausted, as the cog began to turn beneath him, planning to dump him on the ground too far away.

A bolt of alarm swept through Nate as he began to slip, jolting him out of his daze, and he frantically ignored his bruised body as he scrambled to grab ahold of the cog's teeth to climb as up as possible, saving precious seconds from being thrown off.

"Okay, gotta get up! Climb!" He ordered himself aloud, more than slightly hysterically as the cog began turning quicker and quicker - then the huge bell slammed very loudly into it from above, almost making Nate lose his grip on the edges.

Hanging on with barely one hard, he looked down and back up helplessly as the cog considered continuing its rounds, and at this far down it with such a loose grip, Nate would definitely fall.

His body dangled in the air from one arm as he stared down at the ground, too far away, urgently scanning for anything to stop such a long fall which would almost certainly be pretty serious.

Nate had a lot of experience with heights, and this one was way too far to land at all safely; falling from where he was to the hard centuries-old ground without stopping didn't put surviving such a drop in his favour. Escaping without serious injury and broken bones was almost nil.

And frankly, he didn't - and certainly Sam did not - have time for that right now.

So he noted the only thing between him and the ground (a small hanging gear-like object) and even as the cog he was desperately clinging to with one hand began to turn again and he felt his fingers surely slipping, he fumbled with the rope at his hip with the other hand.

As he fell in a breathless moment, Nate blindly threw the trusty hook at the gear thing, praying it would support his weight at least for a second; anything to pause this dangerous plunge.

The ground rushed up eagerly to meet him and for a terrified second he thought he'd just land head-first, break his neck and be done with it. But at the last possible moment, the rope pulled taunt against the hanging gear, stopping his speed-gathering fall with a painful jerk and braking him for a split-second before his feet met the ground, still too hard.

A harsh bolt of pain shot up his leg from landing, the other ankle still throbbing from the first fall and not appreciating more contact with hard surfaces; his shoulder that had been almost yanked out of its socket from the rope-stop throbbed angrily along with rope-burned hands and the rest of his heavily bruised body as Nate hit the ground on his side and rolled to a unceremonious stop beside clock-tower rubble.

"Holy shit," he panted, moving to hoist himself up on his less painful arm and very slowly gather himself to his feet.

The second he was standing, pain laced through both legs and he groaned quietly in genuine hurt as his back screamed in protest at his battered body being upright. The clock tower agreed and a big cog thudded cheerily on the ground right beside him, working with the aches to push Nate over and away from it.

He hit the ground for the second time in a single minute and just let himself lay there for a moment, shaking - he held his aching arms in a vaguely protective position somewhat above his chest and could see how badly his hands were trembling with exhaustion and pain, like the rest of him.

"Jesus Christ." Nate heard Sully before he came into view through the fading dust, hurrying over with an expression of concern on his face.

This deepened to actual worry when he spotted Nate on the ground, trying rather weakly to push himself up just a little to reassure Sully that he wasn't seriously injured (say they had an injury scale, a serious injury would be a badly broken bone, or a gunshot; something that could potentially - or definitely was - immediately life-threatening).

"Nate?" He said anxiously, quickly crouching beside the kid, "you alright?"

Seemed like a bit of a stupid question, given the situation, but it was a good start as any.

 "I don't know yet," was the completely honest reply. Nate felt pretty badly pummelled from the incident, but he reckoned most of it was bruises and other superficial aches that he'd just have to suck up and deal with.

With that, he tried to start pushing himself up again, but the pain in his leg flared, his other ankle throbbed warningly, and his injured shoulder flatly refused to support any weight.

"Ah, _shit_ ," he hissed through his teeth, forcing himself to sit up anyway with a lot of pained wincing and some help from Sully, who supported him from the side in a worried silence, giving Nate a once-over and trying to triage how bad he was actually hurt.

 Nate half-heartedly waved his mentor off in an attempt to seem better than he was, and brushed his hands on his trousers with a grimace to try and brush the dust from his jeans and the rawness from his palms.

He was about to try standing again, after taking a deep breath against the various aches still pulsing through his body, but Sully quickly put a hand on his shoulder and Nate glanced at him with a wince.

"Just, take a second, alright," he said, still eying Nate worriedly. Briefly, he looked up at how goddamn high the kid had actually fallen before returning his gaze, somewhat unbelievably, to Nate, who wore a pained expression as he managed to stay sitting up without support from his arms, and instead started rubbing his left shoulder, trying to check if it was dislocated or even worse.

While he did that, Sully carefully reached a hand to check for broken ribs, gently but firmly pressing at bruises on his chest, even as Nate flinched and sucked in a breath in pain. "Yeah, I know, just stay still," Sully murmured in response, watching his reactions.

Obediently, Nate waited until Sully finishing checking him and drew back thoughtfully, giving him another once-over. "Bruised and possibly cracked," Sully mused, "but I guess you don't want to do anything about it right now."

Nate shook his head in agreement even as the movement triggered a fresh wave of pain and he put a hand to his chest, laying it protectively over hot bruised skin. Sully resisted rolling his eyes.

"Of course. Well, you'll live, I suppose." He hesitantly straightened up, regarding Nate as he shifted to get up as well. "You didn't actually break anything, right? That was a hell of a fall," Sully continued in concern even as he held out a hand to the kid.

Slowly, Nate took it and carefully managed to get to his feet with help. He began to test his weight on his more injured ankle, and would have collapsed from it giving out if Sully hadn't grabbed his arm to support him. " _Ah-!_ For Christ's _sake_ -!"

"Hey, hey, just- take it easy," Sully urged, taking most of the kid's weight as he tried to stand on his own two very much aching feet.

"It's okay," Nate ground out through teeth gritted in pain; an automated response despite the fact he was leaning heavily on Sully and still trying not to fall back down.

Sully raised an eyebrow. "No one comes out of a fall like that 'okay', kid," he chastened, frowning in worry as Nate again tested his ankle and hissed in pain, though managed to keep it on the ground. "Honestly, how bad's it hurt?" He asked seriously. If they had to stop and get Nate checked out in case he'd actually broken something, then so be it.

Sure, Nate wouldn't agree (and despite obvious care towards his younger brother, Sam would no doubt be pretty ansty about it too), but Sully was the oldest and his first priority was the kid's wellbeing, not to mention that not being able to walk would rather put a spanner in things anyway.

But thankfully, after a moment of careful testing, the pain eased a bit and Nate was able to pretty much stand on his own, ignoring the lasting throbbing from the disgruntled ankle, and though the rest of his bruises ached, he could deal with it.

"It's... not great," he eventually replied, truthfully, "but it'll hold up." He winced. "Sprained, probably."

Still being careful, he slowly took most of his weight back and managed to stop leaning on Sully, who nonetheless kept one hand on his back in some concern, in case his ankle gave out again. Nate nodded at the opening in the centre of the room was a slight chuckle. "At least I got the door open."

He glanced at Sully's unamused expression and smiled ruefully, giving him a grateful pat on the shoulder. "Thanks."

Sully nodded, still watching the kid closely, but Nate was already moving on. He limped to where the bells had eventually opened a sigil-topped spiral staircase leading into some kind of underground chamber, and glanced back at Sully, gesturing towards the stairs with a trace of a grin, the kind of expression reserved for awaiting adventure.

"C'mon. Let's see what Avery has in store for us."

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote like 3/4 of this in an evening last week, then lacked the motivation to finish it which sucked, but I've just done this bit on my current playthrough of u4, and determinedly sat down to complete this story because I really wanted to do it. Phew. I do love the boys so much.  
> And now I can FINALLY get on to working on Pro Deus Quod Licentia, filling in the requests and writing more u4 stuff!


End file.
